Celebrated multiple world champion Mick Doohan has called it ‘bullshit’ for all the talks regarding Marc Marquez needing to ride another bike to prove his MotoGP credentials.
Marquez was crowned a five-time MotoGP champion at the end of the 2018 season – with all of his titles coming with Honda in the premier class. Before that, he won the Moto2 title with Suter and the 125cc championship with Derbi.
Looking at his MotoGP career, the Spaniard is yet to ride on a different machinery while all of his title contenders and also the two other MotoGP champions Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi on the grid have had their time on different bikes in different teams.
From the two, only Rossi is the rider to have won the titles with two different teams on the current grid. Over the 2018 season, there was some chatter around Marquez especially when he was closing in on winning his fifth title.
The talk was common that Marquez needed to win on a different bike than Honda to prove his credentials as an all-time great – especially at a time when it is much more difficult for riders to straightaway adjust to a new bike and start winning races.
When asked Doohan, the Australian squashed all of the talk as ‘bullshit’ as he felt that people are only saying it because they already know how good Marquez is. The two-wheel great had huge words for Marquez and his capabilities.
“That’s bullshit,” he said to MotoGP’s website, on Marquez needing to ride a different bike. “If that’s coming from his competition, they already know how strong he is on the bike and off the bike so they’re trying to make themselves look better.
“Unfortunately at any period of time there are only one of two guys, from as long as I can remember, who were dominating and Marc is in that position at the moment. I think many of his rivals who have been in the same position haven’t been able to take advantage of the machinery they’ve got.
“Marc has been able to put his ability to good use along with the capability of his motorcycle. I think if you gave him a strong manufacturer as well, another one, he would do the same. You saw that with Valentino, with Eddie Lawson – a strong rider is a strong rider.
“I’m not sure whether it [the bike] needs to be ridden that way but he certainly rides it that way and it’s spectacular number one but it’s also efficient. It doesn’t seem to destroy the durability of the tyres for the duration of the race.
“But you know, I think he has ridden Moto2 similarly so that’s just how he rides. And I think if you want to call it evolution, that’s the evolution of his style that has maybe taken MotoGP to a different level.
“I think in the late 80s when the bikes were starting to move around a lot, there were only a few people who liked the bikes moving around and would just roll out the throttle. Now he’s taking that to another level again, a lot of people say the guy’s crazy but to him it’s not crazy, it’s just what he does.”
The biggest test for Marquez will come in 2019 when Lorenzo joins him at Honda. Doohan feels the rivalry will become tasty as there will be no way for Lorenzo to hide while Marquez will have the advantage to start with as he has been immersed with Honda for so long.
Doohan reckons that the pressure will be on both of them because neither of the riders will want to lose to each other – more so Marquez because he is the one with the extra points. The winner in the fight though will be Honda as the bike will become unbeatable.